General Question

When would you change saying "Have a good day" to "Have a good night"?

I’m never sure when I should make the transition to “Have a good day” to “Have a good night”. Do you think 5pm or 6pm is appropriate? I usually start saying it to the customer when I can see it’s getting darker outside

I start with “good afternoon” around 1 and then “good night” at around 5. I think it’s easier this way because if you get in the habit of saying them all you wouldn’t say it’s afternoon when it’s 5 pm….

I work in a doctor’s office, and I usually start saying “have a good evening” to exiting patients around 3 or 4 PM. It seems pretty arbitrary, but you might consider your audience. (Most of the patients in our practice are geriatrics, so dinnertime might be just around the corner by late afternoon.)

Then again, on Monday I absentmindedly told a patient to have a good weekend, so maybe I could learn something from these answers, too.

I usually just go with “Thanks for coming in” to avoid the time issue.

@gailcalled You’re right, such things do sound vapid because I’ve been trained to say them. But I always do feel genuinely thankful they came in – otherwise our schedule is all messed up. And sometimes they’re people I really like. I work in a doctor’s office, too.

I steer clear of the whole mess. When I worked overnight at a truck stop, I usually said “Have a good one.”
I always had more of a problem going from good night to good morning. If someone came in at 4:00 a.m. and had just woken up, they would find it weird if I said “Have a good night.” But if some kids came in at the same time after partying all night… you see where I’m going.
I had a coworker who would greet people according to his body clock. We worked overnight together and he would say “Good morning” when people came in, but he was charismatic and could get away with it.

Precisely 6 pm since it is sort of the universal sun-down signifying the coming of night, even in the sun isn’t down at your location, 6 pm is rather universal when determining the borderline between day and night.